Peter Gabriel Asks Fans To Recreate His ‘Sledgehammer’ Video

Peter Gabriel’s 1986 stop-motion/claymation video for “Sledgehammer” has gone down in history as one of the most innovative music videos of all-time, earning the former Genesis member nine Video Music Awards and becoming one of the most-played videos of all-time on MTV. Now, Gabriel is asking fans to recreate it, shot by shot, and vote for the best.

This may sound like an overly ambitious project, but Gabriel (well, his team) launched a interactive app through his official Facebook that helps to simplify the process and enable voting on each entry. Check it out below.

Dubbed “Grab Your Sledgehammer,” the competition is in celebration of Gabriel’s reissue of So, which celebrates its 25th anniversary. By clicking the app’s tab on Gabriel’s Facebook, fans can upload their own interpretations of each scene through YouTube or record video on their computers’ webcams directly through the app. So far, some competitors have incorporated props that Gabriel uses in the video. Others, however, seem to be experimenting with the app, simply making funny facial expressions and hand motions. Watch the original “Sledgehammer” video below.

The winner of “Grab Your Sledgehammer” will receive a TDKperformance Wireless Boombox and an autographed So art print. Runners-up, i.e. the winners of each individual shots, will win “Sledgehammer” posters. The competition ends November 16th.

The re-release and box set of So, which includes “Sledgehammer,” is out this week. The album’s box set is really something to behold – see all the goods that are included in Gabriel’s video below.